GoDaddy.com has stooped as low as they can to sell their product. I will not use their site. Other commercials showed scantily clad women and all sorts of debauchery. But there were also some noble commercials.

Well, Owen got it right about the polar Americas. The only solution is a Third Great Awakening. Suggest that we use Jonathan Edwards’ Humble Attempt which inspired William Carey and a host of others to launch the Great Century of Missions after praying for years, doubtless, pleading the promises that Carey listed. David why don’t you lead a movement after a close study of Edwards work and get all your readers and bloggers to agonizing for God to visit our nation with another such blessing?

Would love to see some further discussion on this. First off – did Owen, Carey, and Edwards call up famous sermons of the past or did they speak in a manner reflective of their contemporary culture? Did they bring in the message from one or two centuries ago or did they craft the needed message for their century?

Also, is the missions model of exporting British and Western culture that was all the rage during the colonial period relevant for today? I’m guessing not. Additionally, what is the depth and breadth of mission work that needs to be tackled? Hudson Taylor did a lot more than church planting and did it in a way that scandalized a lot of his supporters. William Carey was a noted naturalist and botanist as well as a missionary. Let’s do the entire spectrum of mission work.

February 4, 2013 10:22 am

threegirldad

Did I spell Strachan correctly?

Yes. 🙂

February 4, 2013 12:47 am

Christiane

Thirty-five years ago, Paul Harvey gave that famous ‘farmer speech’ at an FFA meeting (Future Farmers of America) . . . the year was 1978

February 4, 2013 1:08 am

Adam G. in NC

Millions of families and youth-groups were glued to their sets for these. The scorpion, the devil, and the dude in his drawers… How do we approach this?

February 4, 2013 2:19 am

Jess Alford

Dave,

Paul Harvey Knew how to speak.

The commercials are designed to appeal to all groups in our polar America. Companies have experts who know how to reach the
weakness of a person. These experts are the best at what they do.

I didn’t watch the football game yesterday. I don’t even like football.
I did watch Patino and the Louisville Cardinals win again.

I suppose the best salesman of all time is satan, he sold the forbidden fruit to Eve. I suppose the second best sales person would be a woman.
Eve sold the forbidden fruit to Adam.

Commercials are reflective of the cultural sensibilities of the demographic groups they target for sales. Given the divergence of sales themes, I’d say we are fairly polarized. Chuck Colson pointed out in 2005 that the process of secularization (that’s causing the polarization) could make America ungovernable, and I heard him reiterate it not long before his death. We’ve always been polarized to one extent or another, but in previous times we have tended to hold to what is noble and honorable. And what is noble and honorable has entailed the recognition that the self-identified God-given civil liberty codified in our constitution is mitigated by our responsibility to uphold the same. However, the polarization has centered on the notion that the responsibility we have to defend our civil liberty is mitigated by the liberty itself. This is why some of our fellow citizens have such strange notions that our liberty will not be jeopardized if we try not to defend it or that a woman’s choice is more important than the life of her unborn baby. What’s important to these people is not fulfilling duty through sacrifice for the common good but fulfilling our own selfish lust and hedonism over and against everyone else’s selfish lust and hedonism.